With its last two DLC packs releasing today, it seems that this is a good time for me to reflect on Bethesda and Obsidian’s Fallout: New Vegas. 

I have already said I liked the core game after its release last year, but the four downloadable add-ons really push it to another level. The dark, intense Dead Money and the hilarious Old World Blues are the best, but all four are excellent additions to the game, and these add-ons seemed to require a re-evaluation of the game. Once you factor them in, the quality of the game goes up dramatically. For instance, the disappointment I felt over its lack of deep dialogues disappeared completely after Dead Money.

Having said that, it still has some issues. The story, while a huge improvement over Fallout 3‘s, still seemed a little lacking. There isn’t really any “theme” to New Vegas, as far as I can tell; and the add-ons, while all individually good, are all so different from one another they almost don’t really feel like the same game, although valiant efforts were made to tie them all together.

It’s also true that the game has its share of glitches, but I felt it wasn’t too bad when the size of the world Obsidian created is taken into account. Overall, these flaws aside, it’s one of the best games to be released in years, and I have to say it was almost everything I hoped for.